Technologies used in wireless sensor networks

In recent years, a demand for remote measuring, automation and control in various branches of industry, agriculture, environmental engineering, and many other areas is rapidly growing. Therefore, many systems are emerging and evolving. Such systems utilize small autonomous devices (nodes) and it is obvious that all these devices need to communicate with each other as well as with the system administrator. In most cases the communication is wireless. Devices form networks, each of which requires specific approach because of different conditions and needs. Thus, there are many various methods, protocols and algorithms, most of them still under development. However, a few standards already exist. Such networks are called wireless sensor networks (WSN) and this paper will bring the overview of technologies used in WSNs, differences, constraints and corresponding recommendations and standards. The recent areas of research and future perspectives will also be mentioned.